Members of Trenton Central High School’s Inspirational Gospel Choir came home victorious Sunday from the Music in the Parks competition in Los Angeles, where they won four first-place awards.

Thirty-one students and four chaperones, including teacher and chorale director Gary Taylor, flew to Los Angeles last Wednesday for the band, orchestra and choir competition.

“This is the first year they’ve swept all the awards. It was an overall great experience,” Taylor said.

The choir won awards for Most Outstanding Overall Choir of the Competition and Most Outstanding High School Mixed Chorus in their division of four schools.

The students also won the Esprit de Corps award, which is an award that is presented to those who demonstrated proper social behavior and also encouraged other schools, such as applauding for groups other than their own.

According to Taylor, the Esprit de Corps award is the most important because it acknowledges students who have respect for others and are dedicated to the arts. It also is an award that is given to just one school out of all the divisions.

“It was great that we won that award because it showed that we represented our school in a good way,” sophomore Barrington Scott said.

Freshman Jaquan Colvin also won the award for Most Outstanding Soloist for the second year in a row.

Superintendent Francisco Durán described the choir as “a Trenton Treasure” in a news release.

“The choir is a safe haven for our students to not only share their gifts and talents, but it is also a support system where the students share their concerns, their hopes and their dreams.”

Last year’s trip to Atlanta was funded by the board of education, but this year the choir needed to raise the daunting sum of $25,000 in order to go to Los Angeles, Taylor said.

According to Taylor, donations came from many different places, but the largest donation was $15,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

At times, however, the group wasn’t sure they would be able to raise all of the funds needed to attend.

“Being optimistic the whole time was difficult,” Taylor said. “We weren’t always sure if we’d be able to go. We’re just grateful to every person who donated and helped out.”

Barry Scott, a parent of one of the students, said most of the parents couldn’t afford the trip for their own children, so the students needed to do some fundraising.

“I’m just glad they’re doing it,” he said. “(My son’s) experience with the choir has been very positive — he really enjoys it. The camaraderie and the competition between the groups was a great experience for the kids.”

“I was trying to give it my all and I tried to smile the whole way through,” Barrington Scott said.

Barry Scott, whose classmates went to Europe with a gospel choir in 1971 and sang for the pope, said he wants to start having concerts for local people.

“More people need to know about it. They need to know about something positive at Trenton High,” he said.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect that Barry Scott's classmates sang for the pope in 1971, but he did not accompany them.